Process of making gas.



PATENTED AUG. 4. 1903.

W. KENT.

PROCESS 0F MAKING GAS.

APrLIoATIoN FILED SEPT. 25, 1901.

HO'HODEL.

l iymM/M W/TNESSES me News versus co. vnu-reuma.. wAsmNa-(QN. u4 c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE..

WILLIAM KENT, OF PASSAIO, NEW JERSEY.

PROCESS Oli MAKING GAS'.`

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 735,272, dated August4, 1903.

Application filed September 25, 1901. Serial No.776,4112. (Nospecimens.)

To LZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM KENT, a citizen of the United States,residing at Passaic, in the county of Passaic and State of NewJersey,ihave invented certain new and useful Improvements inGas-MakingProcesses; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention,

such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains tomake and use the same.

The object of my inventionvis to produce a heating-gas from bituminouscoal or other fuel which shall be free from condensable tarry vapors andfrom hydrocarbon gases, and which will therefore be suitable foruse ingas-engines or in furnaces in which it is desirable to have a clearsmokeless flame.

It is well known that producer-gas made from bituminous coal in any ofthe ordinary forms of producers is heavily charged with tarry vapors,which are apt to condense in the pipes and ports leading tothe cylindersof gas-engines, and it is therefore unsuitable for use in such engines.Gas so made also contains a large percentage of hydrocarbon gases, whichare apt to give a smoky Iiame when burned with an insufficient supply ofair. In order to make a gasin any of the ordinary forms of producerswhich shall be free from tarry vapors and from hydrocarbon gas, it isnecessary that the fuel be either anthracite coal or. coke containing nobituminous matter. Y.

In the process herein described all the bituminons or hydrogenous partof the fuel is first thoroughly burned into carbon dioxid andwater-vapor, and these are afterward decomposed by passing them througha mass of incandescent coke, forming carbon monoxid and hydrogen, whichare the constituents of water-gas.

Referring to the drawings, Figure l is a cross-section of the producerused in my process, and Fig. 2 shows a detail of the cover of thecoal-charging hopper. i

The producer consists of a furnace or shaft somewhat similar in shape toa blast-furnace. I prefer to build the lower part of it cylindrical andthe upper part of it in the shape of a frustum of a cone, so that as thebituminous coal swells in the coking operation as 'it descends it willnot jam on the sides of the shaft, but will be free to move downward.

A is the external sheet-metal casing of the producer, and B itstire-brick lining. The coal is fed in at the top through a hopper C,

.provided with'a valve D at the bottom andV with a tight coveron top.This hopper may have the form of the covered bell and hopper commonlyused in blast-furnaces. When the 6o producer is nearly full, the uppersurface of the coal will ,takeapproxiinately the form of a cone, asshown in the dotted line I, leaving an open space between it and the topof the producer.

H is a blast -pipe receiving air from a blower, which is preferably apositive blower of either the rotating-drum or the piston type. By meansof a series of branch pipes it delivers air into the producer at dierentpoints 7o through the twyers E E' E2. Valves h are placed in the branchpipes, so that the airpressure in front of the severa-l twyers may beregulated as desired.

F F are steam or water pipes through which 7 5 either steam or water maybe delivered into the producer as desired.

.The bottom of the furnace may conven. iently be closed by thewell-known water seal frequently used in other forms of producers 8oconsisting of a deep trough M around the cone J in the bottom of theproducer containing waterkL l; but it is evident that a grate of eitherthe stationary or the revolving form, such as is used in the' Taylorproducer, may 85 be employed instead, or the bottom may be closed likethe bottom of a blast-furnace, the ashes in this case being fused andrun out in the form .of liquid slag.

G is the gas-exit flue. There may be one 9o or more of such flues,according to the size of the producer. l

rlhe operation of the process is as follows: Before starting theproduction of gas of the quality desired a tire of wood is rst made inthe shaft, to which coal is added gradually, air being supplied at thebottom, until the shaft is thus made nearly full of incandescent coke,or if a supply of coke is available it may be charged into the shaft andby Ioo means of fire and a blast of air applied at the bottom be broughtinto a highly-heated state.

The shaft being` in this manner nearly filled with incandescent coke,the operation of gas making will then be begun and continued regularly,as follows: A fresh supply of coal is delivered from the hopper C byopening the valve D, the cover being tightly closed. This fresh coalbeing heated by the hot coke lying below and being impinged upon by ablast of air under considerable pressure from the upper series oftwyeis, it rapidly distils off its Volatile matter, which is immediatelyburned by the excessive supply of air,forming carbondioxid gas andsuperheated steam. These pass downward through the underlying mass ofcoke, which is kept in a state of incandescence by the burningofaportionofit byair admitted from other twyers and is decomposed by the hot cokeforming carbon-monoxid gas and hydrogen. The carbon dioxid formed by theburning of a portion of the coke is also decomposed by passing throughthe body of coke, forming additional carbon monoxid. The gases thusformed, together with the nitrogen obtained from the air, escape intothe exitfiue, which is preferably located at about the middle of theshaft. The coke in the bottom portion of the producer is completelyburned to ashes by air admitted through the twyers near the bottom, andthe carbon dioxid thus formed passing through the superjacent mass ofhot coke is also converted into carbon monoxid, which finds its way tothe exit-flue. The ashes accumulating in the bottom of the producer areremoved through the water seal in the customary manner, or they may beremoved through grates or fluxed into a slag and run out through aslag-block, as in the operation of blast-furnaces.

The gases formed as above described will pass into the exit-iiue at avery high temperature, which is objectionable for most purposes unlessthe fuel used contains a large percentage of moisture, the decompositionof rsa,

which into hydrogen gas will tend to cool the gas. In most cases it willbe found desirable to cool the gas by means of either steam, or waterwhich will flash into steam, injected by the pipes F F', located atconvenient places near the middle of the height of the producer. It isdesirable to inject as large a quant-ity of steam as possible in orderto increase the proportion of hydrogen, and thereby increase the heatingvalue of the gas; but it is necessary not to increase the quantity tosuch a point as will cool the coke and the gas to a degree which Willprevent the decomposition of the steam and the reaction by which carbondioxid is decomposed into carbon monoxid.

An ideal gas formed by the process here described will contain nohydrocarbons or condensable tarry vapors and will be as high in hydrogenand as low in nitrogen as possible. The carbon in the fuel will benearly all converted finally into carbon monoxid, leaving but little toescape as carbon dioXid. The nitrogen will be that derived from the airblown into the producer.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is-

The process of making gas which consists in blasting a charge of coal toincandescence, then feeding a fresh supply of coal upon said charge andblowing air directly into the charge itself at points substantially atthe top and bottom of the same, and at the same time feeding steam orwater into the charge at or near the zone of greatest temperature andwithdrawing the gas produced substantially at a point midway of saidcharge, substantally as set forth.

WILLIAM KENT.

Witnesses:

ALFRED E. KORNFELD, F. W. FROST.

